On Wednesday, October 31, 2018, one of the units in Gadjah Mada University’s Faculty of Psychology, the Center for Public Mental Health (CPMH) held a national workshop. It was part of the events to commemorate Mental Health Day, which is on October 10. The theme of the workshop was Assesment of Disaster’s Psychological Impact. It is very related with the issue of mental health, especially for people and communities impacted by disasters. Psychological first aid and assessment are rarely put in the spotlight when it comes to helping them.
There were 45 people from various institutions in attendance. The participants of the workshop were invited by CPMH, starting from lecturers of the faculty to practitioners and experts from non-profit organizations and institutions such as Tagana, BPBD, Health Services, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan, Indonesian Red Cross, and MDMC. The workshop took place in G-100 and went on for about 3 hours. The speaker/trainer was our very own Dr. Rahmat Hidayat, M.Sc.
He delivered various materials regarding this topic, while also explaining the general impact of disasters such as tsunamis, avalanches, earthquakes, typhoons, and volcanic eruptions. According to Dr. Rahmat, natural disasters create significant impact to the mental health and psychosocial condition of communities hit by disaster, due to traumatic experiences, losses, and the post-disaster environmental conditions that they have to face. Therefore, mental health recovery is needed to help them function optimally.
At the end of the session, participants were asked to discuss methods to estimate impacts of disaster used and also the implementation in coping with natural disasters in Indonesia. Participants were also encouraged to give their opinion on the possible developments of previous methods used. (UGM Psychology PR/Jehna)